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Paul Mccartney

Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He gained worldwide fame as the bass guitarist and singer for the rock band the Beatles, widely considered the most popular and influential group in the history of popular music. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history. After the group disbanded in 1970, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine.

McCartney has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music. He has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism, poverty, and music education. He has married three times and is the father of five children.

Early life

McCartney's home at 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton. The McCartney family moved into this residence in 1955.[3]

James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary Patricia (née Mohin), had qualified to practise as a nurse. His father, James ("Jim") McCartney, was absent from his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer firefighter during World War II.[4] McCartney has one younger brother named Michael and a stepsister, Ruth. The children were baptised in their mother's Catholic faith, even though their father was a former Protestant, who had turned agnostic. Religion was not emphasised in the household.[5]

McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton.[6] In 1953, with only three others out of ninety examinees, he passed the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute, a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school.[7] In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his suburban home in Speke. The two quickly became friends; McCartney later admitted: "I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger."[8]

The type of people that I came from, I never saw better! ... I mean, the Presidents, the Prime Minister, I never met anyone half as nice as some of the people I know from Liverpool who are nothing, who do nothing. They're not important or famous. But they are smart, like my dad was smart. I mean, people who can just cut through problems like a hot knife through butter. The kind of people you need in life. Salt of the earth.[9]

— Paul McCartney, Playboy interview, 1984

McCartney's mother, Mary, was a midwife and the family's primary wage earner; her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, where they lived until 1964.[10] She rode a bicycle to her patients; McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at "about three in the morning [the] streets... thick with snow".[11] On 31 October 1956, when McCartney was 14, his mother died of an embolism.[12] McCartney's loss later became a point of connection with John Lennon, whose mother, Julia, had died when he was 17.[13]

McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist, who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons. However, McCartney preferred to learn by ear.[14][nb 1] When McCartney was 11, his father encouraged him to audition for the Liverpool Cathedral choir, but he was not accepted. McCartney then joined the choir at St Barnabas' Church, Mossley Hill.[17] McCartney received a nickel-plated trumpet from his father for his fourteenth birthday, but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg, McCartney traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith (model17) acoustic guitar, since he wanted to be able to sing while playing.[18] He found it difficult to play guitar right-handed, but after noticing a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert and realising that Whitman played left-handed, he reversed the order of the strings.[19] McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on the Zenith, and composed another early tune that would become "When I'm Sixty-Four" on the piano. American rhythm and blues influenced him, and Little Richard was his schoolboy idol; "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public, at a Butlin's Filey holiday camp talent competition.[20]

Career

1957–1960: The Quarrymen

At the age of fifteen on 6 July 1957, McCartney met John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton.[21] The Quarrymen played a mix of rock and roll and skiffle, a type of popular music with jazz, blues and folk influences.[22] Soon afterwards, the members of the band invited McCartney to join as a rhythm guitarist, and he formed a close working relationship with Lennon. Harrison joined in 1958 as lead guitarist, followed by Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe on bass, in 1960.[23] By May 1960 the band had tried several names, including Johnny and the Moondogs, Beatals and the Silver Beetles.[24] They adopted the name the Beatles in August 1960 and recruited drummer Pete Best shortly before a five-engagement residency in Hamburg.[25]

1960–1970: The Beatles

The Beatles were informally represented by Allan Williams; in 1960, the group booked its first performance at a residency in Hamburg.[26][nb 2] In 1961, Sutcliffe left the band and McCartney reluctantly became their bass player.[28] While in Hamburg, they recorded professionally for the first time and were credited as the Beat Brothers, who were the backing band for English singer Tony Sheridan on the single "My Bonnie".[29] This resulted in attention from Brian Epstein, who was a key figure in their subsequent development and success. He became their manager in January 1962.[30]Ringo Starr replaced Best in August, and the band had their first hit, "Love Me Do", in October, becoming popular in the UK in 1963, and in the US a year later. The fan hysteria became known as "Beatlemania", and the press sometimes referred to McCartney as the "cute Beatle".[31][nb 3][nb 4]

In August 1965, the Beatles released the McCartney composition "Yesterday", featuring a string quartet. Included on the Help! LP, the song was the group's first recorded use of classical music elements and their first recording that involved only a single band member.[34] "Yesterday" became one of the most covered songs in popular music history.[35] Later that year, during recording sessions for the album Rubber Soul, McCartney began to supplant Lennon as the dominant musical force in the band. MusicologistIan MacDonald wrote, "from [1965]... [McCartney] would be in the ascendant not only as a songwriter, but also as instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and de facto musical director of the Beatles."[36] Critics described Rubber Soul as a significant advance in the refinement and profundity of the band's music and lyrics.[37] Considered a high point in the Beatles catalogue, both Lennon and McCartney said they had written the music for the song "In My Life".[38] McCartney said of the album, "we'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand."[39] Recording engineer Norman Smith stated that the Rubber Soul sessions exposed indications of increasing contention within the band: "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious... [and] as far as Paul was concerned, George [Harrison] could do no right—Paul was absolutely finicky."[40]

In 1966, the Beatles released the album Revolver. Featuring sophisticated lyrics, studio experimentation, and an expanded repertoire of musical genres ranging from innovative string arrangements to psychedelic rock, the album marked an artistic leap for the Beatles.[41] The first of three consecutive McCartney A-sides, the single "Paperback Writer" preceded the LP's release.[42] The Beatles produced a short promotional film for the song, and another for its B-side, "Rain". The films, described by Harrison as "the forerunner of videos", aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June 1966.[43]Revolver also included McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby", which featured a string octet. According to Gould, the song is "a neoclassical tour de force ... a true hybrid, conforming to no recognizable style or genre of song".[44] Except for some backing vocals, the song included only McCartney's lead vocal and the strings arranged by producer George Martin.[45][nb 5]

McCartney (center) with the rest of the Beatles in 1964

The band gave their final commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour.[47] Later that year, McCartney completed his first musical project independently of the group—a film score for the UK production The Family Way. The score was a collaboration with Martin, who used two McCartney themes to write thirteen variations. The soundtrack failed to chart, but it won McCartney an Ivor Novello Award for Best Instrumental Theme.[48]

Upon the end of the Beatles' performing career, McCartney sensed unease in the band and wanted them to maintain creative productivity. He pressed them to start a new project, which became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, widely regarded as rock's first concept album.[49] McCartney was inspired to create a new persona for the group, to serve as a vehicle for experimentation and to demonstrate to their fans that they had musically matured. He invented the fictional band of the album's title track.[50] As McCartney explained, "We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top approach. We were not boys we were men... and [we] thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers."[51]

Starting in November 1966, the band adopted an experimental attitude during recording sessions for the album.[52] According to engineer Geoff Emerick, "the Beatles were looking to go out on a limb, both musically and sonically... we were utilising a lot of tapevarispeeding and other manipulation techniques... limiters and... effects like flanging and ADT."[53] Their recording of "A Day in the Life" required a forty-piece orchestra, which Martin and McCartney took turns conducting.[54] The sessions produced the double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967, and the LP followed in June.[32][nb 6] McCartney's "She's Leaving Home" was an orchestral pop song. MacDonald described the track as "[among] the finest work on Sgt. Pepper—imperishable popular art of its time".[56] Based on an ink drawing by McCartney, the LP's cover included a collage designed by pop artistsPeter Blake and Jann Haworth, featuring the Beatles in costume as the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, standing with a host of celebrities.[57][nb 7] The heavy moustaches worn by the Beatles reflected the growing influence of hippie style trends on the band, while their clothing "spoofed the vogue in Britain for military fashions", wrote Gould.[59] Scholar David Scott Kastan described Sgt. Pepper as "the most important and influential rock-and-roll album ever recorded".[60]

After Brian died... Paul took over and supposedly led us you know... we went round in circles... We broke up then. That was the disintegration. I thought, 'we've fuckin' had it.'[61]

— John Lennon, Rolling Stone magazine, 1970

McCartney (far right) with the Beatles in 1967

Epstein's death at age 32 in August 1967 created a void, which left the Beatles perplexed and concerned about their future.[62] McCartney stepped in to fill that void and gradually became the de facto leader and business manager of the group that Lennon had once led.[63] In his first creative suggestion after this change of leadership, McCartney proposed that the band move forward on their plans to produce a film for television, which was to become Magical Mystery Tour. According to Beatles' historian Mark Lewisohn, the project was "an administrative nightmare throughout".[64] McCartney largely directed the film, which brought the group their first unfavourable critical response.[65] However, the film's soundtrack was more successful. It was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play disc (EP), and as an identically titled LP in the US, filled out with five songs from the band's recent singles.[32] The only Capitol compilation later included in the group's official canon of studio albums, the Magical Mystery Tour LP achieved $8million in sales within three weeks of its release, higher initial sales than any other Capitol LP up to that point.[66]

The Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine, loosely based on the imaginary world evoked by McCartney's 1966 composition, premiered in July 1968. Though critics admired the film for its visual style, humour and music, the soundtrack album issued six months later received a less enthusiastic response.[67] By late 1968, relations within the band were deteriorating. The tension grew during the recording of their eponymous double album, also known as the "White Album".[68][nb 8] Matters worsened the following year during the Let It Be sessions, when a camera crew filmed McCartney lecturing the group: "We've been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away... we were always fighting [his] discipline a bit, but it's silly to fight that discipline if it's our own".[70]

In March 1969, McCartney married his first wife, Linda Eastman, and in August, the couple had their first child, Mary, named after his late mother.[71]Abbey Road was the band's last recorded album, and Martin suggested "a continuously moving piece of music", urging the group to think symphonically.[72] McCartney agreed, but Lennon did not. They eventually compromised, agreeing to McCartney's suggestion: an LP featuring individual songs on side one, and a long medley on side two.[72] In October 1969, a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash in 1966 and been replaced by a lookalike, but this was quickly refuted when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family, accompanied by the caption "Paul is still with us".[73]

McCartney was in the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates when he announced his departure from the group on 10 April 1970.[74] He filed a suit for the band's formal dissolution on 31 December 1970. More legal disputes followed as McCartney's attorneys– his in-laws John and Lee Eastman–fought the three remaining Beatles' business manager, Allen Klein, over royalties and creative control. An English court legally dissolved the Beatles on 9 January 1975, though sporadic lawsuits against their record company EMI, Klein, and each other persisted until 1989.[63][nb 9][nb 10]

McCartney was depressed after the group disbanded. His wife helped him pull out of that condition by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording. In her honour, he wrote "Maybe I'm Amazed", explaining that with the Beatles breaking up, "that was my feeling: Maybe I'm amazed at what's going on ... Maybe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman who could ever help me; Baby won't you help me understand ... Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time, hung me on the line, Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you." He added that "every love song I write is for Linda."[79][80]

1970–1981: Wings

I didn't really want to keep going as a solo artist... so it became obvious that I had to get a band together... Linda and I talked it through and it was like, 'Yeah, but let's not put together a supergroup, let's go back to square one.'[81]

— McCartney

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, McCartney continued his musical career with his first solo release, McCartney, a US number-one album. Apart from some vocal contributions from Linda, McCartney is a one-man album, with McCartney providing compositions, instrumentation and vocals.[82][nb 11] In 1971, he collaborated with Linda and drummer Denny Seiwell on a second album, Ram. A UK number one and a US top five, Ram included the co-written US number-one hit single "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".[84] Later that year, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine joined the McCartneys and Seiwell to form the band Wings. McCartney had this to say on the group's formation: "Wings were always a difficult idea... any group having to follow [the Beatles'] success would have a hard job... I found myself in that very position. However, it was a choice between going on or finishing, and I loved music too much to think of stopping."[85][nb 12] In September 1971, the McCartneys' daughter Stella was born, named in honour of Linda's grandmothers, both of whom were named Stella.[87]

Following the addition of guitarist Henry McCullough, Wings' first concert tour began in 1972 with a debut performance in front of an audience of seven hundred at the University of Nottingham. Ten more gigs followed as they travelled across the UK in a van during an unannounced tour of universities, during which the band stayed in modest accommodation and received pay in coinage collected from students, while avoiding Beatles songs during their performances.[88] McCartney later said, "The main thing I didn't want was to come on stage, faced with the whole torment of five rows of press people with little pads, all looking at me and saying, 'Oh well, he is not as good as he was.' So we decided to go out on that university tour which made me less nervous... by the end of that tour I felt ready for something else, so we went into Europe."[89] During the seven-week, 25-show Wings Over Europe Tour, the band played almost solely Wings and McCartney solo material: the Little Richard cover "Long Tall Sally" was the only song that had previously been recorded by the Beatles. McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people.[90]

After the departure of McCullough and Seiwell in 1973, the McCartneys and Laine recorded Band on the Run. The album was the first of seven platinum Wings LPs.[95] It was a US and UK number one, the band's first to top the charts in both countries and the first ever to reach Billboard magazine's charts on three separate occasions. One of the best-selling releases of the decade, it remained on the UK charts for 124 weeks. Rolling Stone named it one of the Best Albums of the Year for 1973, and in 1975 Paul McCartney and Wings won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance for the song "Band on the Run" and Geoff Emerick won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording for the album.[96][nb 15] In 1974, Wings achieved a second US number-one single with the title track.[98] The album also included the top-ten hits "Jet" and "Helen Wheels", and earned the 413th spot on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[99][nb 16]

Wings followed Band on the Run with the chart-topping albums Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976).[101][nb 17] In 1975, they began the fourteen-month Wings Over the World Tour, which included stops in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US. The tour marked the first time McCartney performed Beatles songs live with Wings, with five in the two-hour set list: "I've Just Seen a Face", "Yesterday", "Blackbird", "Lady Madonna" and "The Long and Winding Road".[103] Following the second European leg of the tour and extensive rehearsals in London, the group undertook an ambitious US arena tour that yielded the US number-one live triple LP Wings over America.[104]

In September 1977, the McCartneys had a third child, a son they named James. In November, the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre", co-written with Laine, was quickly becoming one of the best-selling singles in UK chart history.[105] The most successful single of McCartney's solo career, it achieved double the sales of the previous record holder, "She Loves You", and went on to sell 2.5million copies and hold the UK sales record until the 1984 charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"[106][nb 18]

In 1980, McCartney released his second solo LP, the self-produced McCartney II, which peaked at number one in the UK and number three in the US. As with his first album, he composed and performed it alone.[112] The album contained the song "Coming Up", the live version of which, recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1979 by Wings, became the group's last number-one hit.[113] By 1981, McCartney felt he had accomplished all he could creatively with Wings and decided he needed a change. The group disbanded in April 1981 after Laine quit following disagreements over royalties and salaries.[114][nb 20][nb 21]

In 1984, McCartney starred in the musical Give My Regards to Broad Street, a feature film he also wrote and produced which included Starr in an acting role. Disparaged by critics, Variety described the film as "characterless, bloodless, and pointless".[123]Roger Ebert awarded it a single star and wrote, "you can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the soundtrack".[124] The album fared much better, reaching number one in the UK and producing the US top-ten hit single "No More Lonely Nights", featuring David Gilmour on lead guitar.[125] In 1985, Warner Brothers commissioned McCartney to write a song for the comedic feature film Spies Like Us. He composed and recorded the track in four days, with Phil Ramone co-producing.[126][nb 24] McCartney participated in Live Aid, performing "Let it Be", but technical difficulties rendered his vocals and piano barely audible for the first two verses, punctuated by squeals of feedback. Equipment technicians resolved the problems and David Bowie, Alison Moyet, Pete Townshend and Bob Geldof joined McCartney on stage, receiving an enthusiastic crowd reaction.[128]

1991–1999

McCartney ventured into orchestral music in 1991, when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by him to celebrate its sesquicentennial. He collaborated with composer Carl Davis, producing Liverpool Oratorio. The performance featured opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral.[141] Reviews were negative. The Guardian was especially critical, describing the music as "afraid of anything approaching a fast tempo", and adding that the piece has "little awareness of the need for recurrent ideas that will bind the work into a whole".[142] The paper published a letter McCartney submitted in response in which he noted several of the work's faster tempos and added, "happily, history shows that many good pieces of music were not liked by the critics of the time so I am content to... let people judge for themselves the merits of the work."[142]The New York Times was slightly more generous, stating, "There are moments of beauty and pleasure in this dramatic miscellany... the music's innocent sincerity makes it difficult to be put off by its ambitions".[143] Performed around the world after its London premiere, the Liverpool Oratorio reached number one on the UK classical chart, Music Week.[144]

Starting in 1994, McCartney took a four-year break from his solo career to work on Apple's Beatles Anthology project with Harrison, Starr and Martin. He recorded a radio series called Oobu Joobu in 1995 for the American network Westwood One, which he described as "widescreen radio".[154] Also in 1995, Prince Charles presented him with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Music—"kind of amazing for somebody who doesn't read a note of music", commented McCartney.[155]

In 1997, McCartney released the rock album Flaming Pie. Starr appeared on drums and backing vocals in "Beautiful Night".[156][nb 34] Later that year, he released the classical work Standing Stone, which topped the UK and US classical charts.[158] In 1998, he released Rushes, the second electronica album by the Fireman.[159] In 1999, McCartney released Run Devil Run.[160][nb 35] Recorded in one week, and featuring Ian Paice and David Gilmour, it was primarily an album of covers with three McCartney originals. He had been planning such an album for years, having been previously encouraged to do so by Linda, who had died of cancer in April 1998.[161]

McCartney's enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues. In 2009, he played to three sold-out concerts at the newly built Citi Field—a venue constructed to replace Shea Stadium in Queens, New York. These performances yielded the double live album Good Evening New York City later that year.[189]

On 12 December, McCartney performed with three former members of Nirvana (Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear) during the closing act of 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief, seen by approximately two billion people worldwide.[201] On 28 August 2013, McCartney released the title track of his upcoming studio album New, which came out in October 2013.[202] A primetime entertainment special was taped 27 January 2014 at the Ed Sullivan Theater with a 9 February 2014 CBS airing. The show featured Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and celebrated the legacy of the seven-time Grammy-winning group the Beatles and their groundbreaking 1964 first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The show, titled The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles, featured 22 classic Beatles songs as performed by various artists, which included original Beatles McCartney and Starr.[203]

On 19 May 2014, the news reported that McCartney had been bedridden on doctor's orders due to an unspecified virus, which forced him to cancel a sold-out concert tour of Japan that was scheduled to begin later in the week. The tour would have included a stop at the famed Budokan Hall. McCartney also had to push his June US dates to October, as part of his doctor's order to take it easy to make a full recovery.[204] However, he resumed the tour with a high-energy three hour appearance in Albany, New York, on 5 July 2014.[205] On 14 August 2014, McCartney performed the final concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California before its demolition. It was the same venue that the Beatles played their final concert in 1966.[206] In 2014, McCartney wrote and performed "Hope for the Future," the ending song for the video game Destiny.[207][208] In November 2014, a 42-song tribute album titled The Art of McCartney was released, which features a wide range of artists covering McCartney's solo and Beatles work.[209] Also that year, McCartney collaborated with American recording artist Kanye West on the single "Only One", released on 31 December.[210]

Musicianship

McCartney was largely a self-taught musician, and his approach was described by musicologist Ian MacDonald as "by nature drawn to music's formal aspects yet wholly untutored... [he] produced technically 'finished' work almost entirely by instinct, his harmonic judgement based mainly on perfect pitch and an acute pair of ears ... [A] natural melodist—a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony".[227] McCartney commented, "I prefer to think of my approach to music as... rather like the primitive cave artists, who drew without training."[228]

Paul is one of the most innovative bass players ... half the stuff that's going on now is directly ripped off from his Beatles period ... He's an egomaniac about everything else, but his bass playing he'd always been a bit coy about.[234]

— Lennon, Playboy magazine, January 1981

During McCartney's early years with the Beatles, he primarily used a Höfner 500/1 bass, although from 1965, he favoured his Rickenbacker 4001S for recording. While typically using Vox amplifiers, by 1967 he had also begun using a Fender Bassman for amplification.[235] During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he used a Wal 5-String, which he said made him play more thick-sounding basslines, in contrast to the much lighter Höfner, which inspired him to play more sensitively, something he considers fundamental to his playing style.[231] He changed back to the Höfner around 1990 for that reason.[231] He uses Mesa Boogie bass amplifiers while performing live.[236]

MacDonald identified "She's a Woman" as the turning point when McCartney's bass playing began to evolve dramatically, and Beatles biographer Chris Ingham singled out Rubber Soul as the moment when McCartney's playing exhibited significant progress, particularly on "The Word".[237] Bacon and Morgan agreed, calling McCartney's groove on the track "a high point in pop bass playing and ... the first proof on a recording of his serious technical ability on the instrument."[238] MacDonald inferred the influence of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour", American soul tracks from which McCartney absorbed elements and drew inspiration as he "delivered his most spontaneous bass-part to date".[239]

Bacon and Morgan described his bassline for the Beatles song "Rain" as "an astonishing piece of playing... [McCartney] thinking in terms of both rhythm and 'lead bass'... [choosing] the area of the neck... he correctly perceives will give him clarity for melody without rendering his sound too thin for groove."[240] MacDonald identified the influence of Indian classical music in "exotic melismas in the bass part" on "Rain" and described the playing as "so inventive that it threatens to overwhelm the track".[241] By contrast, he recognised McCartney's bass part on the Harrison-composed "Something" as creative but overly busy and "too fussily extemporised".[242] McCartney identified Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as containing his strongest and most inventive bass playing, particularly on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".[243]

Acoustic guitar

If I couldn't have any other instrument, I would have to have an acoustic guitar.[244]

— McCartney, Guitar Player, July 1990

McCartney primarily flatpicks while playing acoustic guitar, though he also uses elements of fingerpicking.[244] Examples of his acoustic guitar playing on Beatles tracks include "Yesterday", "I'm Looking Through You", "Michelle", "Blackbird", "I Will", "Mother Nature's Son" and "Rocky Raccoon".[245] McCartney singled out "Blackbird" as a personal favourite and described his technique for the guitar part in the following way: "I got my own little sort of cheating way of [fingerpicking] ... I'm actually sort of pulling two strings at a time... I was trying to emulate those folk players."[244] He employed a similar technique for "Jenny Wren".[246] He played an Epiphone Texan on many of his acoustic recordings, but also used a Martin D-28.[247]

Electric guitar

Linda was a big fan of my guitar playing, whereas I've got my doubts. I think there are proper guitar players and then there are guys like me who love playing it.[248]

McCartney played lead guitar on several Beatles recordings, including what MacDonald described as a "fiercely angular slide guitar solo" on "Drive My Car", which McCartney played on an Epiphone Casino. McCartney said of the instrument, "if I had to pick one electric guitar it would be this."[249] He contributed what MacDonald described as "a startling guitar solo" on the Harrison composition "Taxman" and the "shrieking" guitar on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Helter Skelter". MacDonald also praised McCartney's "coruscating pseudo-Indian" guitar solo on "Good Morning Good Morning".[250] McCartney also played lead guitar on "Another Girl".[251]

During his years with Wings, McCartney tended to leave electric guitar work to other group members,[252] though he played most of the lead guitar on Band on the Run.[253] In 1990, when asked who his favourite guitar players were he included Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton and David Gilmour, stating, "but I still like Hendrix the best".[244] He has primarily used a Gibson Les Paul for electric work, particularly during live performances.[236]

Vocals

Often renowned as one of the greatest singers in pop music, McCartney was ranked the 11th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone,[254] voted the 8th greatest singer ever by NME readers[255] and number 10 by Music Radar readers in the list of "the 30 greatest lead singers of all time".[256] He is known for his belting power, versatility and wide tenor vocal range, spanning over four octaves.[257][258] Heavily influenced by Little Richard,[259][260] McCartney's vocals would cross several musical genres throughout his career. On "Call Me Back Again", according to Benitez, "McCartney shines as a bluesy solo vocalist" while MacDonald called "I'm Down" "a rock-and-roll classic" that "illustrates McCartney's vocal and stylistic versatility".[261] MacDonald described "Helter Skelter" as an early attempt at heavy metal, and "Hey Jude" as a "pop/rock hybrid", pointing out McCartney's "use of gospel-style melismas" in the song and his "pseudo-soul shrieking in the fade-out".[262] Benitez identified "Hope of Deliverance" and "Put It There" as examples of McCartney's folk music efforts while musicologist Walter Everett considered "When I'm Sixty-Four" and "Honey Pie" attempts at vaudeville.[263] MacDonald praised the "swinging beat" of the Beatles' twenty-four bar blues song, "She's a Woman" as "the most extreme sound they had manufactured to date", with McCartney's voice "at the edge, squeezed to the upper limit of his chest register and threatening to crack at any moment."[264] MacDonald described "I've Got a Feeling" as a "raunchy, mid-tempo rocker" with a "robust and soulful" vocal performance and "Back in the U.S.S.R." as "the last of [the Beatles'] up-tempo rockers", McCartney's "belting" vocals among his best since "Drive My Car", recorded three years earlier.[265]

McCartney also teasingly tried out classical singing, namely singing various renditions of "Besame Mucho" with the Beatles. He continued experimenting with various musical and vocal styles throughout his post-Beatles career.[266][267][268] "Monkberry Moon Delight" was described by Pitchfork's Jayson Greene as "an absolutely unhinged vocal take, Paul gulping and sobbing right next to your inner ear", adding that "it could be a latter-day Tom Waits performance".[269] Over the years, McCartney has been named a significant vocal influence by a number of renowned artists, including Chris Cornell,[270] Billy Joel,[271] Steven Tyler,[272] Brad Delp[273] and Axl Rose.[274]

Drums

McCartney played drums on the Beatles' songs "Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Dear Prudence", "Martha My Dear", "Wild Honey Pie" and "The Ballad of John and Yoko".[280] He also played all the drum parts on his first and second solo albums McCartney and McCartney II, as well as on the Wings album Band on the Run and most of the drums on his solo LP Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.[281] McCartney also played drums on Paul Jones' rendition of "And the Sun Will Shine" in 1968.[282] Using the pseudonym Paul Ramon, which he had first used during the Beatles first tour in Scotland in 1960, McCartney played drums on Steve Miller Band's 1969 tracks "Celebration Song" and "My Dark Hour".[283][284] McCartney played drums on the track "Sunday Rain" from the Foo Fighters' 2017 album Concrete and Gold.

Tape loops

In the mid-1960s, when visiting artist friend John Dunbar's flat in London, McCartney brought tapes he had compiled at then-girlfriend Jane Asher's home. They included mixes of various songs, musical pieces and comments made by McCartney that Dick James made into a demo for him.[285] Heavily influenced by American avant-garde musician John Cage, McCartney made tape loops by recording voices, guitars and bongos on a Brenelltape recorder and splicing the various loops. He referred to the finished product as "electronic symphonies".[286] He reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the desired effects, some of which the Beatles later used on the songs "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "The Fool on the Hill".[287]

McCartney called Little Richard an idol, whose falsettovocalisations inspired McCartney's own vocal technique.[292] McCartney said he wrote "I'm Down" as a vehicle for his Little Richard impersonation.[293] In 1971, McCartney bought the publishing rights to Holly's catalogue, and in 1976, on the fortieth anniversary of Holly's birth, McCartney inaugurated the annual "Buddy Holly Week" in England. The festival has included guest performances by famous musicians, songwriting competitions, drawing contests and special events featuring performances by the Crickets.[294]

Lifestyle

Creative outlets

While at school during the 1950s, McCartney thrived at art assignments, often earning top accolades for his visual work. However, his lack of discipline negatively affected his academic grades, preventing him from earning admission to art college.[295] During the 1960s, he delved into the visual arts, explored experimental cinema, and regularly attended film, theatrical and classical music performances. His first contact with the London avant-garde scene was through artist John Dunbar, who introduced McCartney to art dealer Robert Fraser.[296] At Fraser's flat he first learned about art appreciation and met Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Blake, and Richard Hamilton.[297] McCartney later purchased works by Magritte, using his painting of an apple for the Apple Records logo.[298] McCartney became involved in the renovation and publicising of the Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London, which Barry Miles had co-founded and where Lennon first met Yoko Ono. Miles also co-founded International Times, an underground paper that McCartney helped to start with direct financial support and by providing interviews to attract advertiser income. Miles later wrote McCartney's official biography, Many Years From Now (1997).[299]

McCartney became interested in painting after watching artist Willem de Kooning work in de Kooning's Long Island studio.[300] McCartney took up painting in 1983, and he first exhibited his work in Siegen, Germany, in 1999. The 70-painting show featured portraits of Lennon, Andy Warhol and David Bowie.[301] Though initially reluctant to display his paintings publicly, McCartney chose the gallery because events organiser Wolfgang Suttner showed genuine interest in McCartney's art.[302] In September 2000, the first UK exhibition of McCartney's paintings opened, featuring 500 canvases at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, England.[303] In October 2000, McCartney's art debuted in his hometown of Liverpool. McCartney said, "I've been offered an exhibition of my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery ... where John and I used to spend many a pleasant afternoon. So I'm really excited about it. I didn't tell anybody I painted for 15 years but now I'm out of the closet".[304] McCartney is lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a school in the building formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute for Boys.[305]

When McCartney was a child, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books. His father invited Paul and his brother Michael to solve crosswords with him, to increase their "word power", as McCartney said.[306] In 2001, McCartney published Blackbird Singing, a volume of poems and lyrics to his songs for which he gave readings in Liverpool and New York City.[307] In the foreword of the book, he explains: "When I was a teenager... I had an overwhelming desire to have a poem published in the school magazine. I wrote something deep and meaningful—which was promptly rejected—and I suppose I have been trying to get my own back ever since".[308] His first children's book was published by Faber & Faber in 2005, High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail, a collaboration with writer Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar. Featuring a squirrel whose woodland home is razed by developers, it had been scripted and sketched by McCartney and Dunbar over several years, as an animated film. The Observer labelled it an "anti-capitalist children's book".[309]

I think there's an urge in us to stop the terrible fleetingness of time. Music. Paintings... Try and capture one bloody moment please.[310]

— McCartney

In 1981, McCartney asked Geoff Dunbar to direct a short animated film called Rupert and the Frog Song; McCartney was the writer and producer, and he also added some of the character voices.[311] His song "We All Stand Together" from the film's soundtrack reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. In 1992, he worked with Dunbar on an animated film about the work of French artist Honoré Daumier, which won them a BAFTA award.[312] In 2004, they worked together on the animated short film Tropic Island Hum.[313] The accompanying single, "Tropic Island Hum"/"We All Stand Together", reached number 21 in the UK.[314]

Business

Since the Rich List began in 1989, McCartney has been the UK's wealthiest musician, with an estimated fortune of £730million in 2015.[317] In addition to an interest in Apple Corps and MPL Communications, an umbrella company for his business interests, he owns a significant music publishing catalogue, with access to over 25,000 copyrights, including the publishing rights to the musicals Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, Annie and Grease.[318] He earned £40million in 2003, the highest income that year within media professions in the UK.[319] This rose to £48.5million by 2005.[320] McCartney's 18-date On the Run Tour grossed £37million in 2012.[321]

McCartney signed his first recording contract, as a member of the Beatles, with Parlophone Records, an EMI subsidiary, in June 1962. In the United States, the Beatles recordings were distributed by EMI subsidiary Capitol Records. The Beatles re-signed with EMI for another nine years in 1967. After forming their own record label, Apple Records, in 1968, the Beatles' recordings would be released through Apple although the masters were still owned by EMI.[32] Following the break-up of the Beatles, McCartney's music continued to be released by Apple Records under the Beatles' 1967 recording contract with EMI which ran until 1976. Following the formal dissolution of the Beatles' partnership in 1975, McCartney re-signed with EMI worldwide and Capitol in the US, Canada and Japan, acquiring ownership of his solo catalogue from EMI as part of the deal. In 1979, McCartney signed with Columbia Records in the US and Canada—reportedly receiving the industry's most lucrative recording contract to date, while remaining with EMI for distribution throughout the rest of the world.[322] As part of the deal, CBS offered McCartney ownership of Frank Music, publisher of the catalogue of American songwriter Frank Loesser. McCartney's album sales were below CBS' expectations and reportedly the company lost at least $9 million on the contract.[323] McCartney returned to Capitol in the US in 1985, remaining with EMI until 2006.[324] In 2007, McCartney signed with Hear Music, becoming the label's first artist. He remains there as of 2012[update]'s Kisses on the Bottom.[325]

In 1963, Dick James established Northern Songs to publish the songs of Lennon–McCartney.[326] McCartney initially owned 20% of Northern Songs, which became 15% after a public stock offering in 1965. In 1969, James sold a controlling interest in Northern Songs to Lew Grade's Associated Television (ATV) after which McCartney and John Lennon sold their remaining shares although they remained under contract to ATV until 1973. In 1972, McCartney re-signed with ATV for seven years in a joint publishing agreement between ATV and McCartney Music. Since 1979, MPL Communications has published McCartney's songs.

McCartney and Yoko Ono attempted to purchase the Northern Songs catalogue in 1981, but Grade declined their offer. Soon afterward, ATV Music's parent company, Associated Communications Corp., was acquired in a takeover by businessman Robert Holmes à Court, who later sold ATV Music to Michael Jackson in 1985. McCartney has criticised Jackson's purchase and handling of Northern Songs over the years. In 1995, Jackson merged his catalogue with Sony for a reported £59,052,000 ($95million), establishing Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he retained half-ownership.[327] Northern Songs was formally dissolved in 1995, and absorbed into the Sony/ATV catalogue.[328] McCartney receives writers' royalties which together are 33⅓ percent of total commercial proceeds in the US, and which vary elsewhere between 50 and 55 percent.[329] Two of the Beatles' earliest songs—"Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You"—were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before signing with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in 1978, and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by MPL Communications.[330]

Drugs

McCartney first used drugs in the Beatles' Hamburg days, when they often used Preludin to maintain their energy while performing for long periods.[331]Bob Dylan introduced them to marijuana in a New York hotel room in 1964; McCartney recalls getting "very high" and "giggling uncontrollably".[332] His use of the drug soon became habitual, and according to Miles, McCartney wrote the lyrics "another kind of mind" in "Got to Get You into My Life" specifically as a reference to cannabis.[333] During the filming of Help!, McCartney occasionally smoked a joint in the car on the way to the studio during filming, and often forgot his lines.[334] Director Richard Lester overheard two physically attractive women trying to persuade McCartney to use heroin, but he refused.[334] Introduced to cocaine by Robert Fraser, McCartney used the drug regularly during the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and for about a year total but stopped because of his dislike of the unpleasant melancholy he felt afterwards.[335]

Initially reluctant to try LSD, McCartney eventually did so in late 1966, and took his second "acid trip" in March 1967, with Lennon, after a Sgt. Pepper studio session.[336] He later became the first Beatle to discuss the drug publicly, declaring, "It opened my eyes... [and] made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society."[337] He made his attitude about cannabis public in 1967, when he, along with the other Beatles and Epstein, added his name to a July advertisement in The Times, which called for its legalisation, the release of those imprisoned for possession, and research into marijuana's medical uses.[338]

In 1972, a Swedish court fined McCartney £1,000 for cannabis possession. Soon after, Scottish police found marijuana plants growing on his farm, leading to his 1973 conviction for illegal cultivation and a £100 fine. As a result of his drug convictions, the US government repeatedly denied him a visa until December 1973.[339] Arrested again for marijuana possession in 1975, in Los Angeles, Linda took the blame, and the court soon dismissed the charges. In January 1980, when Wings flew to Tokyo for a tour of Japan, customs officials found approximately 8ounces (200g) of cannabis in his luggage. They arrested McCartney and brought him to a local jail while the Japanese government decided what to do. After ten days, they released and deported him without charge.[340] In 1984, while McCartney was on holiday in Barbados, authorities arrested him for possession of marijuana and fined him $200.[341] Upon his return to England, he stated: "cannabis is... less harmful than rum punch, whiskey, nicotine and glue, all of which are perfectly legal... I don't think... I was doing anyone any harm whatsoever."[342] In 1997, he spoke out in support of decriminalisation of the drug: "People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong."[296] He did however, decide to quit cannabis in 2015, citing a desire to set a good example for his grandchildren.[343]

In 2009, McCartney wrote to Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, asking him why he was not a vegetarian. As McCartney explained, "He wrote back very kindly, saying, 'my doctors tell me that I must eat meat'. And I wrote back again, saying, you know, I don't think that's right... I think he's now being told... that he can get his protein somewhere else... It just doesn't seem right—the Dalai Lama, on the one hand, saying, 'Hey guys, don't harm sentient beings... Oh, and by the way, I'm having a steak.'"[362]

In 2015, following British prime minister David Cameron's decision to give Members of Parliament a free vote on amending the law against fox hunting, McCartney was quoted: "The people of Britain are behind this Tory government on many things but the vast majority of us will be against them if hunting is reintroduced. It is cruel and unnecessary and will lose them support from ordinary people and animal lovers like myself."[366]

Football

McCartney has publicly professed support for Everton, and also shown favour for Liverpool.[370] In 2008, he ended speculation about his allegiance when he said, "Here's the deal: my father was born in Everton, my family are officially Evertonians, so if it comes down to a derby match or an FA Cup final between the two, I would have to support Everton. But after a concert at Wembley Arena I got a bit of a friendship with Kenny Dalglish, who had been to the gig and I thought 'You know what? I am just going to support them both because it's all Liverpool.'"[371]

Personal relationships

Girlfriends

Dot Rhone

McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dot Rhone, whom he met at the Casbah club in 1959.[372] According to Spitz, Rhone felt that McCartney had a compulsion to control situations. He often chose clothes and make-up for her, encouraging her to grow her hair out like Brigitte Bardot's, and at least once insisting she have it re-styled, to disappointing effect.[373] When McCartney first went to Hamburg with the Beatles, he wrote to Rhone regularly, and she accompanied Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when they played there again in 1962.[374] The couple had a two-and-a-half-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone's miscarriage; according to Spitz, McCartney, now "free of obligation", ended the engagement.[375]

Jane Asher

McCartney first met British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963, when a photographer asked them to pose at a Beatles performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.[376] The two began a relationship, and in November of that year he took up residence with Asher at her parents' home at 57 Wimpole Street, London.[377] They had lived there for more than two years before the couple moved to McCartney's own home in St. John's Wood, in March 1966.[378] He wrote several songs while living at the Ashers', including "Yesterday", "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You", the latter three having been inspired by their romance.[379] They had a five-year relationship and planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement after she discovered he had become involved with Francie Schwartz.[380]

Wives

Linda Eastman

McCartney (right) with wife Linda (left) in 1976

Linda Eastman was a music fan who once commented, "all my teen years were spent with an ear to the radio."[381] At times, she played hookey to see artists such as Fabian, Bobby Darin and Chuck Berry.[381] She became a popular photographer with several rock groups, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Grateful Dead, the Doors and the Beatles, whom she first met at Shea Stadium in 1966. She commented, "It was John who interested me at the start. He was my Beatle hero. But when I met him the fascination faded fast, and I found it was Paul I liked."[382] The pair first properly met in 1967 at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club, during her UK assignment to photograph rock musicians in London. As Paul remembers, "The night Linda and I met, I spotted her across a crowded club, and although I would normally have been nervous chatting her up, I realised I had to... Pushiness worked for me that night!"[383] Linda said this about their meeting: "I was quite shameless really. I was with somebody else [that night]... and I saw Paul at the other side of the room. He looked so beautiful that I made up my mind I would have to pick him up."[382] The pair married in 1969. About their relationship, Paul said, "We had a lot of fun together... just the nature of how we are, our favourite thing really is to just hang, to have fun. And Linda's very big on just following the moment."[384] He added, "We were crazy. We had a big argument the night before we got married, and it was nearly called off... [it's] miraculous that we made it. But we did."[385]

After the Beatles' break-up, the two collaborated musically and formed Wings in 1971.[386] They faced derision from some fans and critics, who questioned her inclusion. She was nervous about performing with Paul, who explained, "she conquered those nerves, got on with it and was really gutsy."[387] Paul defended her musical ability: "I taught Linda the basics of the keyboard... She took a couple of lessons and learned some bluesy things... she did very well and made it look easier than it was... The critics would say, 'She's not really playing' or 'Look at her—she's playing with one finger.' But what they didn't know is that sometimes she was playing a thing called a Minimoog, which could only be played with one finger. It was monophonic."[387] He went on to say, "We thought we were in it for the fun... it was just something we wanted to do, so if we got it wrong—big deal. We didn't have to justify ourselves."[387] Former Wings guitarist McCullough said of collaborating with Linda, "trying to get things together with a learner in the group didn't work as far as I was concerned."[388]

They had four children—Linda's daughter Heather (legally adopted by Paul), Mary, Stella and James—and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer at age 56 in 1998.[389] After Linda died, Paul stated in the Daily Mail, "I got a counsellor because I knew that I would need some help. He was great, particularly in helping me get rid of my guilt [about wishing I'd been] perfect all the time... a real bugger. But then I thought, hang on a minute. We're just human. That was the beautiful thing about our marriage. We were just a boyfriend and girlfriend having babies."[390]

Heather Mills

In 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmines campaigner.[391] In 2003, the couple had a child, Beatrice Milly, named in honour of Mills' late mother, and one of McCartney's aunts.[175] They separated in April 2006 and divorced acrimoniously in March 2008.[392] In 2004, he commented on media animosity toward his partners: "[the British public] didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher... I married [Linda], a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that".[393]

Nancy Shevell

McCartney married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall, London, on 9 October 2011. The wedding was a modest event attended by a group of about 30 relatives and friends.[194] The couple had been together since November 2007.[394] Shevell is vice-president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which owns New England Motor Freight.[395] She is a former member of the board of the New York area's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.[396]

Beatles

John Lennon

Lennon (left) and McCartney (right) in 1964

Though McCartney had a strained relationship with Lennon, they briefly became close again in early 1974, and played music together on one occasion.[397] In later years, the two grew apart.[398] While McCartney would often phone Lennon, he was apprehensive about the reception he would receive. During one call, Lennon told him, "You're all pizza and fairytales!"[399] In an effort to avoid talking only about business, they often spoke of cats, babies, or baking bread.[400]

On 24 April 1976, McCartney and Lennon were watching an episode of Saturday Night Live together at Lennon's home in the Dakota, when Lorne Michaels made a $3,000 cash offer for the Beatles to reunite. While they seriously considered going to the SNL studio a few blocks away, they decided it was too late. This was their last time together.[401]VH1 fictionalised this event in the 2000 television film Two of Us.[402] McCartney's last telephone call to Lennon, days before Lennon and Ono released Double Fantasy, was friendly; he said this about the call: "[It is] a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out. But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn't have any kind of blow-up."[403]

Reaction to Lennon's murder

John is kinda like a constant... always there in my being... in my soul, so I always think of him".[404]

— McCartney, Guitar World, January 2000

On 9 December 1980, McCartney followed the news that Lennon had been murdered the previous night; Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of the band.[405] McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio that evening when he was surrounded by reporters who asked him for his reaction; he responded: "It's a drag". The press quickly criticised him for what appeared to be a superficial response.[406] He later explained, "When John was killed somebody stuck a microphone at me and said: 'What do you think about it?' I said, 'It's a dra-a-ag' and meant it with every inch of melancholy I could muster. When you put that in print it says, 'McCartney in London today when asked for a comment on his dead friend said, "It's a drag".' It seemed a very flippant comment to make."[406] He described his first exchange with Ono after the murder, and his last conversation with Lennon:

I talked to Yoko the day after he was killed, and the first thing she said was, "John was really fond of you." The last telephone conversation I had with him we were still the best of mates. He was always a very warm guy, John. His bluff was all on the surface. He used to take his glasses down, those granny glasses, and say, "it's only me." They were like a wall you know? A shield. Those are the moments I treasure.[406]

In 1983, McCartney said, "I would not have been as typically human and standoffish as I was if I knew John was going to die. I would have made more of an effort to try and get behind his "mask" and have a better relationship with him."[406] He said that he went home that night, watched the news on television with his children and cried most of the evening. In 1997, he said that Lennon's death made the remaining ex-Beatles nervous that they might also be murdered.[407] He told Mojo magazine in 2002 that Lennon was his greatest hero.[408] In 1981, McCartney sang backup on Harrison's tribute to their ex-bandmate, "All Those Years Ago", which featured Starr on drums.[409] McCartney released "Here Today" in 1982, a song Everett described as "a haunting tribute" to McCartney's friendship with Lennon.[410]

George Harrison

Discussing his relationship with McCartney, Harrison said, "Paul would always help along when you'd done his ten songs—then when he got 'round to doing one of my songs, he would help. It was silly. It was very selfish, actually... There were a lot of tracks, though, where I played bass... because what Paul would do—if he'd written a song, he'd learn all the parts for Paul and then come in the studio and say (sometimes he was very difficult): 'Do this'. He'd never give you the opportunity to come out with something."[411]

After Harrison's death in November 2001, McCartney said he was "a lovely guy and a very brave man who had a wonderful sense of humour". He went on to say, "We grew up together and we just had so many beautiful times together– that's what I am going to remember. I'll always love him, he's my baby brother."[412] On the first anniversary of his death, McCartney played Harrison's "Something" on a ukulele at the Concert for George.[413] He also performed "For You Blue" and "All Things Must Pass", and played the piano on Eric Clapton's rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".[414]

Ringo Starr

During a recording session for The Beatles in 1968, the two got into an argument over McCartney's critique of Starr's drum part for "Back in the U.S.S.R.", which contributed to Starr temporarily leaving the band.[415] Starr later commented on working with McCartney: "Paul is the greatest bass player in the world. But he is also very determined... [to] get his own way... [thus] musical disagreements inevitably arose from time to time."[416]

McCartney and Starr collaborated on several post-Beatles projects starting in 1973, when McCartney contributed instrumentation and backing vocals for "Six O'Clock", a song McCartney wrote for Starr's album Ringo.[417] McCartney played a kazoo solo on another track from the album "You're Sixteen".[418] Starr appeared (as a fictional version of himself) in McCartney's 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street, and played drums on most tracks of the soundtrack album, which includes re-recordings of several McCartney-penned Beatles songs. Starr played drums and sang backing vocals on "Beautiful Night" from McCartney's 1997 album Flaming Pie. The pair collaborated again in 1998, on Starr's Vertical Man, which featured McCartney's backing vocals on three songs, and instrumentation on one.[419] In 2009, the pair performed "With a Little Help from My Friends" at a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation.[420] They collaborated on Starr's album Y Not in 2010. McCartney played bass on "Peace Dream", and sang a duet with Starr on "Walk with You".[421] On 7 July 2010, Starr was performing at Radio City Music Hall in New York with his All-Starr Band in a concert celebrating his seventieth birthday. After the encores, McCartney made a surprise appearance, performing the Beatles' song "Birthday" with Starr's band.[422] On 26 January 2014 McCartney and Starr performed "Queenie Eye" from McCartney's new album New at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.[423] McCartney inducted Starr into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2015, and played bass on his 2017 album Give More Love. On 16 December 2018, Starr and Ronnie Wood joined McCartney onstage to perform "Get Back" at his concert at London's O2 Arena.

Legacy

Achievements

McCartney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and again as a solo artist in 1999. In 1979, the Guinness Book of World Records recognised McCartney as the "most honored composer and performer in music", with 60 gold discs (43 with the Beatles, 17 with Wings) and, as a member of the Beatles, sales of over 100 million singles and 100 million albums, and as the "most successful song writer", he wrote jointly or solo 43 songs which sold one million or more records between 1962 and 1978.[424] In 2009, Guinness World Records again recognised McCartney as the "most successful songwriter" having written or co-written 188 charted records in the United Kingdom, of which 91 reached the top 10 and 33 made it to number one.[425]

McCartney has written, or co-written 32 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100: twenty with the Beatles; seven solo or with Wings; one as a co-writer of "A World Without Love", a number-one single for Peter and Gordon; one as a co-writer on Elton John's cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"; one as a co-writer on Stars on 45's "Medley"; one as a co-writer with Michael Jackson on "Say Say Say"; and one as writer on "Ebony and Ivory" performed with Stevie Wonder.[426]As of 2009[update], he has 15.5million RIAA certified units in the United States as a solo artist plus another 10million with Wings.[427]

Credited with more number ones in the UK than any other artist, McCartney has participated in twenty-four chart topping singles: seventeen with the Beatles, one solo, and one each with Wings, Stevie Wonder, Ferry Aid, Band Aid, Band Aid 20 and "The Christians et al."[428][nb 47] He is the only artist to reach the UK number one as a soloist ("Pipes of Peace"), duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Wonder), trio ("Mull of Kintyre", Wings), quartet ("She Loves You", the Beatles), quintet ("Get Back", the Beatles with Billy Preston) and as part of a musical ensemble for charity (Ferry Aid).[430]

"Yesterday" is one of the most covered songs in history with more than 2,200 recorded versions, and according to the BBC, "the track is the only one by a UK writer to have been aired more than sevenmillion times on American TV and radio and is third in the all-time list... [and] is the most played song by a British writer [last] century in the US".[431] His 1968 Beatles composition "Hey Jude" achieved the highest sales in the UK that year and topped the US charts for nine weeks, which is longer than any other Beatles single. It was also the longest single released by the band and, at seven minutes eleven seconds, was at that time the longest number one.[432] "Hey Jude" is the best-selling Beatles single, achieving sales of over fivemillion copies soon after its release.[433][nb 48]

In July 2005, McCartney's performance of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with U2 at Live 8 became the fastest-released single in history. Available within forty-five minutes of its recording, hours later it had achieved number one on the UK Official Download Chart.[176]

Notes

↑ Jim McCartney's father Joe played an E-flat tuba.[15] McCartney's father also pointed out the bass parts in songs on the radio, and often took his sons to local brass band concerts.[16]

↑ During their extended stays there over the next two years, they performed as the resident group at the Indra, and later the Kaiserkeller, both owned by Bruno Koschmider. Periodically, the band received breaks from playing in Hamburg and returned to Liverpool, performing regularly at the Cavern Club.[27]

↑ The Beatles was the band's first Apple Records LP release; the label was a subsidiary of Apple Corps, a conglomerate formed as part of Epstein's plan to reduce the group's taxes.[69]

↑ When the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, their first year of eligibility, McCartney did not attend the ceremony, stating that unresolved legal disputes would make him "feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with [Harrison and Starr] at a fake reunion".[75]

↑ Wings at the Speed of Sound peaked in the UK at number 2, spending 35 weeks in the charts. In the UK, NME was alone in ranking the album number 1. The LP reached number 1 on three charts in the US.[102]

↑ In 1977, McCartney released the album Thrillington, an orchestral arrangement of Ram, under the pseudonym Percy "Thrills" Thrillington, with a cover designed by Hipgnosis.[107]

↑ During the production of London Town, McCulloch and English quit Wings; they were replaced by guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holly.[109]

↑ Other factors in Wings' split included tension caused by the disappointment of their last effort, Back to the Egg, and McCartney's 1980 marijuana bust in Japan, which resulted in the cancelling of the tour and caused a major loss of wages for the group. Laine claimed that a significant cause of their dissolution was McCartney's reluctance to tour, fearing for his personal safety after the 1980 murder of Lennon. McCartney's then-spokesman said, "Paul is doing other things, that's all".[115]

↑ Wings produced a total of seven studio albums, two of which topped the UK charts and four the US charts. Their live triple LP, Wings over America, was one of only a few live albums ever to achieve the top spot in America.[116] They made six US Billboard number-one singles, including "Listen to What the Man Said" and "Silly Love Songs", as well as eight top-ten singles. They achieved eight RIAA-certified platinum singles and six platinum albums in the US.[95] In the UK, they achieved one number-one and twelve top-ten singles, as well as two number-one LPs.[117]

↑ Pipes of Peace peaked in the UK at number 4, spending 23 weeks in the charts. The LP reached number 15 in the US and is McCartney's most recently recorded RIAA certified platinum studio album as of 2012[update].[122]

↑ "Spies Like Us" peaked in the UK at number 13 spending 10 weeks in the charts. The single reached number 7 in the US and is McCartney's most recently recorded US top-ten as of 2012.[127]

↑ Press to Play reached number 8 in the UK, and number 30 in the US.[130]

↑ Flowers in the Dirt is McCartney's most recent UK number-one album as of 2012; it reached number 21 in the US.[135]

↑ Tripping the Live Fantastic reached number 17 in the UK and number 26 in the US.[139]

↑ During the ten-month, 104-show Tripping the Live Fantastic tour, McCartney played as many as fourteen Beatles songs a night, comprising nearly half the performance.[140]

↑ Unplugged: The Official Bootleg reached number 7 in the UK and number 14 in the US.[146]

↑ Off the Ground reached number 5 in the UK and number 17 in the US.[149]

↑ Paul is Live reached number 34 in the UK and number 78 in the US.[151]

↑ For the New World Tour, Whitten was replaced by drummer Blair Cunningham.[152] McCartney's 1993 tour of the US was the second highest grossing effort of the year in America, bringing in $32.3million from twenty-four shows.[153]

↑ Flaming Pie reached number 2 in the UK and the US. It also yielded McCartney's highest charting UK top-twenty hit song as of 2012[update], "Young Boy", which reached number 19.[157]

↑ Run Devil Run reached number 12 in the UK and number 27 in the US.[160]

↑ Driving Rain reached number 46 in the UK and number 26 in the US.[166]

↑ Back in the US reached number 8 in the US, and Back in the World reached number 5 in the UK.[169]

↑ During the Driving World Tour McCartney performed twenty-three Beatles songs in a thirty-six song set, including an all-Beatles encore.[140]

↑ Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is McCartney's most recent top-ten album as of 2012[update]. It reached number10 in the UK, and number6 in the US. It was supported by a UK top-twenty hit single, his most recent as of 2014[update], "Fine Line", which failed to chart in the US, and "Jenny Wren", which reached number22 in the UK.[179]

↑ McCartney followed the release of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard with the 'US' Tour, the tenth top earning act of 2005 in the US, taking in over $17million in ticket sales for eight shows. During the opening performance of the tour, he played thirty-five songs, of which twenty-three were Beatles tracks.[180]

↑ Ecce Cor Meum reached number 2 on the classical charts in both the UK and the US.[181]

↑ Memory Almost Full reached number 3 in the US and spending fifteen weeks in the charts. As of 2014[update], it remains McCartney's most recent top-five album.[183]

↑ Electric Arguments reached number 67 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Independent Albums chart.[185]

↑ In November 2010, iTunes made available the official canon of thirteen Beatles studio albums, Past Masters and the 1962–1966 and 1967–1970 greatest-hits compilations, making the group among the last of the seminal classic rock artists to offer their music for sale on the digital marketplace.[191]

↑ McCartney's band performed thirty-seven songs during 8 May 2012, performance in Mexico City, twenty-three of which were Beatles tracks.[197]

↑ As of 2012[update], Elvis Presley has achieved the most UK number-ones as a solo artist with eighteen.[429]

↑ Benitez 2010, p.2: The two soon became friends, "I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger"; Spitz 2005, pp.82–83: On grammar school versus secondary modern, 125: On meeting Harrison.

↑ Miles 2001, pp.23–24: Williams booking for them to perform in Hamburg; Spitz 2005, p.200: Williams booking them in Hamburg in 1960, Spitz 2005, p.243: "Williams had never formally served as the Beatles manager".

↑ Miles 1997, p.74: McCartney: "Nobody wants to play bass, or nobody did in those days".;Gould 2007, p.89: On McCartney playing bass when Sutcliffe was indisposed., Gould 2007, p.94: "Sutcliffe gradually began to withdraw from active participation in the Beatles, ceding his role as the group's bassist to Paul McCartney".

↑ Gould 2007, pp.391–395: The Sgt. Pepper cover featured the Beatles as the imaginary band alluded to in the album's title track, standing with a host of celebrities (secondary source); The Beatles 2000, p.248: Standing with a host of celebrities (primary source); Miles 1997, p.333: On McCartney's design for the Sgt. Pepper cover (primary source); Sounes 2010, p.168: On McCartney's design for the Sgt. Pepper cover (secondary source).

↑ Lewisohn 1992, pp.350–351: US and UK singles and album release dates with peak chart positions; Gould 2007, pp.8–9: "one of the greatest phenomena in the history of mass entertainment", "widely regarded as the greatest concentration of singing, songwriting, and all-around musical talent that the rock'n'roll era has produced"; Spitz 2005, p.856: "not anything like anything else... [a] vastness of talent... of genius, incomprehensible".

↑ McGee 2003, p.245: NME ranking Wings at the Speed of Sound number 1, and the LP was number 1 on three charts in the US; Roberts 2005, p.312: Peak UK chart position and weeks on charts for Wings at the Speed of Sound.

↑ Blaney 2007, p.116: "And for the first time, McCartney included songs associated with the Beatles, something he'd been unwilling to do previously"; Harry 2002, pp.848–850: Wings Over the World Tour; Ingham 2009, p.107: "featuring a modest handful of McCartney's Beatle tunes"; McGee 2003, p.85: "Paul decided it would be a mistake not to ... [perform] a few Beatles songs."

↑ Benitez 2010, pp.96–97: On Wings' April dissolution, McCartney fearing for his personal safety and the commercial disappointment of Back to the Egg; Blaney 2007, p.132: "Back to the Egg spent only eight weeks in the British charts, the shortest chart run of any Wings album".; Doggett 2009, pp.276: "Paul is doing other things, that's all".; George-Warren 2001, p.626: McCartney's reluctance to tour for fear of his personal safety; McGee 2003, p.144: On McCartney's reluctance to tour out of fear for his personal safety, and Laine's statement that this was a significant contributing factor to Wings' dissolution.

↑ Ingham 2009, pp.109–110: Wings disbanded in 1981; McGee 2003, p.245: US and UK chart positions of Wings' LPs; Harry 2002, pp.904–910: Wings, 912–913: Wings over America; Lewisohn 2002, p.163: one of few live albums ever to achieve the top spot in America.

↑ For the RIAA database see: "RIAA: Searchable Database". the Recording Industry Association of America. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2012.; Roberts 2005, p.312: Peak UK chart position and weeks on charts for Pipes of Peace; Blaney 2007, p.159: US chart peak for Pipes of Peace.

↑ MacDonald 2005, pp.66–67: "According to McCartney, the bassline was taken from"...I'm Talking About You"; Mulhern 1990, p.18: McCartney: "I'm not gonna tell you I wrote the thing when Chuck Berry's bass player did; Miles 1997, p.94: McCartney: "I played exactly the same notes as he did and it fitted our number perfectly".